Various cosmetic and dermatological procedures exist where there is a need to collect and store biological units, for example, for future examination, or processing, or reuse. Hair transplantation procedures are among those well-known procedures, and typically involve harvesting donor hair grafts from the donor areas of the patient's body, most commonly scalp, and implanting them in a bald area (recipient area).
The follicular units may be classified, or “typed,” based on the number of hairs in the unit and identified in shorthand as an “F1” for a single hair follicular unit, an “F2” for a two hair follicular unit and so on for follicular units with 3-5 hairs.
Various procedures for hair transplantation have been previously disclosed, including both manual and mechanized to certain degrees of automation. In one well-known manual process, a linear portion of the scalp is removed from a donor area by dissection with a scalpel down into the fatty subcutaneous tissue. The strip is dissected (under a microscope) into the component follicular units, which are then implanted into a recipient area in respective puncture holes made by a needle. Forceps are typically used to grasp and place the follicular unit grafts into the needle puncture locations, although other instruments and methods are known for doing so.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,746 discloses an automated hair transplantation system utilizing a robot and various tools maneuverable by the robot to harvest and implant hair grafts.
During manual, semi-automatic, or robotically-assisted procedures for hair transplantation, it is usually desirable to collect and retain harvested follicular units or grafts in some storage device prior to their implantation. Similarly, in other cosmetic and dermatological procedures that require removal of the biological objects or tissue, it may be desirable to collect and store such objects before they are processed, reused or re-implanted. Often these storage devices consist of a container for bulk hair grafts, from which a technician plucks individual grafts for implant. While attempts were made to design some storage devices or cartridges for containing hair follicles for use in manual hair transplantation procedures, there is a clear need for an improved storage device with an improved design and which could be used in manual, partially or fully automated, or robotically-assisted systems and procedures.